Creating Holby Blue

Holby Blue trailer



In Media Guardian (free registration required), Tony Jordan explains how he came to write the new BBC police series, Holby Blue, which starts tonight.

I don't know about you, but I don't worry too much about being blown up; my main concern is not getting mugged on the way back from the chippy. So this would be my new show. While the powers that be look toward the threat of terrorism, my characters would combat the threat much closer to home. They would look in dismay at the 20 armed police officers at the airport, taking bottles of water off little old ladies bound for Benidorm and wonder why they only have three unarmed officers patrolling the streets of an area housing 17,000 people: modern-day heroes, fighting not only the crime that scars our once green and pleasant land, but also the bureaucracy that seems to be designed specifically to prevent them from doing just that.

Update: In an interview with The Stage, Tony Jordan has criticised the increase in EastEnders episode. He worked on the show for 18 years until leaving earlier this year.

“If you are producing two-and-a-half hours a week television it’s basically a movie a week and some things suffer for that.

“EastEnders is going through the doldrums a little bit lately, but the one thing about EastEnders is that it will always come back because there is a great team of people working in it.”

He also told The Stage that he was hoping to run a writing competition later in the year.